-
Date of Birth
Frida Kahlo was born on July 6, 1907 in Mexico City, Mexico to a German father and Mexican mother. -
Period: to
Contracting Polio
Kahlo contracted polio at the age of 6 and was confined to her bed for nine months. After she recovered, she walked with a limp, as the disease had damaged her right leg and foot. Her father encouraged her to participate in sports to help with her recovery, and this was seen as an unusual thing for a girl to do at the time. -
Bus Accident
At the age of 18, while enrolled in the National Preparatory School, Kahlo was traveling on a bus with her boyfriend, Alejandro Gómez Arias. The bus collided with a streetcar and Kahlo was impaled with a steel handrail that went through her hip and came out the other side, resulting in multiple pelvic and spinal fractures that crippled her for the rest of her life. -
Self Portrait in a Velvet Dress
Kahlo painted this self-portrait after her 1925 bus accident for her then-boyfriend, Alejandro Gómez. She was inspired to paint this because she missed him and wanted to convey her feelings for him through this painting. Her long face and narrow neck depicted in the piece reflect some Italian Renaissance ideals, and this work of art reflects the start of her art career. -
Period: to
Relationship with Diego Rivera
Kahlo and Rivera always had a very tumultuous relationship. They first married in 1929, when Kahlo was an art student hoping to get advice from Rivera, a famous muralist. She was 22, and he was 42, and her parents greatly disapproved. Their marriage was filled with short tempers and countless infidelities, and they actually divorced in 1939. They married again in 1940, and this marriage was more turbulent than the first. They were married until Kahlo's death in 1954. -
Frida and Diego Rivera
This painting was done after 2 years of marriage between Rivera and Kahlo. It was different from the normal self portraits that she did, and she painted the picture to show how art would always be the dominant factor in Rivera's life. The lack of emotion between the two of them shows that they were somewhat separated by their art, and later by their mutual infidelity within their marriage. -
Kahlo and Rivera
-
Two Fridas
Kahlo painted this right after her divorce from Rivera. She painted two identical Fridas in this picture. The one on the right is the "Mexican Frida," the one Rivera fell in love with. The one on the left is "European Frida," the new, independent artist that the world loves, but whose husband abandoned. There is a thin vein connecting their exposed hearts, uniting them. "European Frida" holds scissors and cuts the vein, showing she felt so much sorrow that she could bleed from it. -
Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird
This painting is one of Kahlo's most famous, as it is very symbolic of her life. One of the most important symbols is the hummingbird, meant to describe Kahlo. Hummingbirds are usually very colorful, but this one is black and lifeless. It is very symbolic of Kahlo, as her life was filled with constant suffering; she was in a terrible bus accident at 18. She is shown quietly enduring the pain of her whole life. Additionally, this painting was done right after her first divorce from Rivera. -
Death
Leading up to her death, Kahlo had frequent bouts of bronchopneumonia as well as many anxiety attacks. She was very ill and frail in the years before her death. She also increased her consumption of morphine for her pain, and was believed to have possibly died of an overdose. Others say that she died of pulmonary embolism, which is an artery blockage in the lungs, but no one knows for sure, as an autopsy was never done. Kahlo died a week after her 47th birthday, and was then cremated.
